After about 3 days of jabbing at it, I've -finallly managed to get my machine to croak on Fedora. The ernell Version I am using right now is 2.6.9-1.667. I was able to do this, entirely by chance and now I am afraid I might regret upgrading it- there are about 199 updates on the up2date.

I looked through this upgrade I noticed that the problem could have been caused by the new ALSA libs in the upgrades (alsa-lib, alsa-lib-devel)- After making fresh installations about 3 to 4 times, I am not sure I'd chance to make a fifth. My question is whether I should make the upgrade (of course I am interested to see the new modifications) or should I remain stuck here at the above kernal

Keeping in mind that I've never seen or used linux *ever* before, I guess I wouldnt even know the difference.

But I'd like to hear if there is a work around to avoid such a risk and will appreciate if you can offer your opinions

Well, I use RH9 which is very old - 2.4 series kernel. My colleague at work uses FC3 (2.6 series). He has LOTS of problems with stuff that works perfectly on my "old" RH9 system. If what you've setup now works satisfactorily DON'T UPGRADE just to "see whats new" - unless you want to fiddle around again to get the new kernel working with stuff that WAS working on your current one. I've noticed with my pal at work that procedures (like installing mplayer, accessing CDROM drives) are a LOT different on Fedora, so much that I would have to (if I upgraded to it) throw out all my documentation (that I wrote myself, for myself, 'cause I've got a bad memory - in my head, like) and start where I was two years ago when I started using Linux.

I don't feel like doing that, so I stay on Rh9 on my 2.4 kernel, which works just fine for me.

Thank you for the input. I also figured just the same. Althought I'd like to do install new softwares and tweak my machine, I suppose I'll first have to get used to the system quickly. Since I've never used linux its painstakingly hard to do anything. And another thing I'd like to point out is that if you stay with the same kernel for so long, you'll fall back behind the technology-